


Old Tricks, New Dog

by paranoidangel



Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-30
Updated: 2014-04-30
Packaged: 2018-01-21 10:12:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1546994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paranoidangel/pseuds/paranoidangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack buys Elizabeth a house-warming present.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old Tricks, New Dog

**Author's Note:**

> Set after the events in [The Atlantis Sacrifice](http://archiveofourown.org/works/236044)

When Elizabeth opened the door to Jack O'Neill, she raised her eyebrows at the black Labrador puppy in his arms. "What's this?"

"It's a puppy," he said, with sarcasm and a hint of a grin. "They grow up into dogs."

She knew Jack well enough not to rise to that and waited until he answered her question properly. It didn't take long.

"He's for you." He held the puppy out to her, so she was forced to take him. "Every home should have a dog."

"Yours doesn't." Even though he had a garden and she didn't. But it was the puppy who held her attention, wagging his tail and leaning up to lick at her face. Jack certainly knew how to choose a good puppy. "You are cute."

"Why, thank you. I haven't been called that since I was a baby."

She laughed and looked back up to him. His expression was a fond one. "Come in, Jack." She stepped back to let him in and once he'd closed the door she put the puppy down. He sniffed her feet, then decided to explore his new home.

"So, new apartment," Jack said as he looked around. "It's..."

When he paused and she put in, "Small."

He shrugged, acknowledging the truth of that. "I was going to say cozy, but small works."

"I'll take you on the two cent tour. This is the living room, there's the kitchen," she motioned towards the nook at one end of the living room, "there's the bedroom and bathroom." She pointed over to the two rooms off the living room at the other end. "I didn't get any back pay while I was dead, so it was either a small apartment or living with my mother."

"Isn't that a bitch?" Jack made himself at home on her couch and gestured to the puppy, who came over to sniff, then lick his hand.

Elizabeth sat beside him. "It's not that I'm not grateful-" she already knew he wasn't going to be taking the puppy back "-but why did you buy me a puppy? Really?"

"I knew you liked dogs." He patted this one's head and his tail wagged harder. "I saw the photo on your desk."

She ducked her head, smiling. For a while she'd tried photos of her friends from Atlantis, or even the city itself, but they just made her homesick. She'd ended up putting them all in a drawer and just kept the one of Sedgwick. "So it's not to keep me on Earth, then?" she asked half-jokingly.

"Well, if it has that effect..." He shrugged.

She was quiet for a moment, wondering just how much that was the real reason. "You know, I had a boyfriend and a dog the first time I went to Atlantis. It didn't stop me then."

Jack looked serious, but beyond that she couldn't tell what he was thinking. She wasn't sure where he wanted their relationship to go, but neither did she, so she'd never asked. What she did know from experience was that long distance relationships didn't work. And she wasn't the only adventurer in this relationship.

"I'll make you a deal," Jack said, after the silence had stretched out and the puppy had grown bored of Jack's hand and moved over to sniff Elizabeth's leg. "Let's both stay on Earth."

That wasn't a hard deal to make, since neither of them had a good opportunity to get off the planet at the moment. And she had just rented an apartment. "Don't you mean let's all stay on Earth?" Smiling, she picked the puppy up, holding him in her lap.

He smiled too. "All three of us."


End file.
